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iPhone 4 Signal Strength Indicator Issue Alleviated by Use of Bumper or Case

People say "just use a bumper" or "Apple should give everyone bumpers for free." The problem is, I don't want a piece of crap "bumper" making my phone look like crap. The beauty in the iPhone is showing it off.

Apple is worthless when it comes to testing its products, because they're too damned secretive. This is obvious that Apple needs to test its products better before releasing them with problems like this.

Honestly, I don't know how Apple can fix this? It is going to have to do something other than say just use your right hand to hold it, or here's a free bumper. How does Apple explain this? I mean the bar thing can be changed to show more bars when there aren't any, LOL. But calls being terminated for bridging the two antennas doesn't seem to have an "easy" fix. It's not like a software fix will work here.
 
NAG said:
I'm not so sure it is anything more than how the phone is interpreting how strong the signal is. When I hold it with my left hand to get one bar the sound quality is still great, no popping or dropping.
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I don't have the link yet but one of the youtube vid's shows live calls being dropped so doubt it's purely a signal strength meter issue.
 
Using the bumper is just a monkey-patch of the real issue. I wanted to buy the iPhone 4, but I don't want a phone that is badly designed and it doesn't work correctly by itself. :mad:
 
NC MacGuy said:
I don't have the link yet but one of the youtube vid's shows live calls being dropped so doubt it's purely a signal strength meter issue.
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Forget dropped calls, I can't surf the web because I hold the phone in my left hand and scroll/click with my right. Of course I had planned on getting a bumper, but I'm still sad that Apple let this get by them and give fodder to the haters.
 
CalebF said:
If this were a non-Apple phone, you'd be calling for the tar and feathers. lol
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Go on to any non-Apple site (e.g. The Register) and you'll see plenty of idiots making all sorts of statements (variations on their same spewed theme that Apple is Crapple and people who buy their stuff are fanbois = sheep).

CalebF said:
And this additional $30 cost as "cheap"? Not to me.
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On a £500/£600 phone (which is the price here in the UK of an unlocked phone), $30 is cheap to anyone. If you can afford a phone that expensive, you can afford $30. Besides, I think they make the phone look even better, and there is the added bonus of the bumpers protecting the front and back of the phone.
 
hey room237...

there is a youtube video out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYmVpoccPnc
where a guy just puts his index finger on the bottom left corner of the phone and the reception drops...so its not even just when holding in hand and covering the corner..all it takes is a finger..so that's where i thought of the electrical current idea..........thx!
 
NC MacGuy said:
I don't have the link yet but one of the youtube vid's shows live calls being dropped so doubt it's purely a signal strength meter issue.
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If the phone is programmed to stop sending resources to the call function when it detects a loss if signal, it could very well still be a signal strength issue. If the phone is fooled into thinking it has no signal, it could be forcing an end to the call when there is no need to.
 
sometimes, when i am driving my car, my gas gauge goes down to E and the light thingy comes on, but its strange because the car keeps running as if it still had gas in it! what's up with that?
 
Has nobody checked this with a multimeter?

Place a prong on either bit of antenna. If the resistance is infinite (which it should be), the two are electrically independent. If the resistance drops to zero, you've shorted them.
 
Sweaty palms?

Gav2k said:
I have found if my hands are dry it's fine it's when there clammy.
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See specs fine print... suitable operating conditions — problem mid-90's and 110% humidity US east-coast today. Solution: white iPhone4 for summer (reflects light = less heat = less sweat), black for winter :rolleyes:
 
mobilehavoc said:
I've always carried all my phones without cases of any type with no issues - it feels good to hold the phone the ways the designers/engineers meant it to be. If the solution to this is you have to have a case, IMHO that's a huge blow against the iPhone.
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I'm with you, I prefer no case - tried them, but I prefer it how as you say the designers created it. With this one, though, I think the bumpers are actually a nice addition to the look of the phone, and if they have benefits aside from aesthetics, all the better!
 
Just to pitch in with my experience quickly, I've just been fiddling with a display i4hone in the arndale Manchester.

Full reception while holding it in my right hand, drops to 3 bars when I hold it in my left hand, and this is inside the Apple store, where they certainly have towers to ensure of an 'optimal' experience.

Being a righty I have always used phones in my left hand I guess because naturally you want to keep your dominant hand usable while talking. I only get 2 or 3 bars of reception in my office, so I would think in the office when I pick up the phone it would probably drop connection.

So I can only pray that this is fixable by a software update because otherwise it won't be worth me getting one, it would be unusable.

And no, a case is not a fix. I would rather risk dropping my phone than make it spend it's life in a hideous lump of silicone.
 
Saladinos said:
Has nobody checked this with a multimeter?

Place a prong on either bit of antenna. If the resistance is infinite (which it should be), the two are electrically independent. If the resistance drops to zero, you've shorted them.
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This would be interesting.

This is a massive fail, and it all comes down to Apple's terrible system of not fully testing first version products. This is another first version, of this model, fail for Apple. They always learn from their mistakes, but unfortunately so do the customers... they learn that they will keep buying first version Apple products and they will keep having massive problems. I just don't see how Apple is going to fix this without redesigning it somehow. It isn't going to be a software fix.
 
NC MacGuy said:
I don't have the link yet but one of the youtube vid's shows live calls being dropped so doubt it's purely a signal strength meter issue.
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I'm not saying it is purely how many bars are shown. I'm saying it might be a problem with how the phone is interpreting what is going on. The phone may be over reacting like many people on this forum. lol
 
Apple definitely should increase the price of the bumper to $299.


MacRumors said:


Quite a few users have reported experiencing an issue with cellular signals appearing to degrade when holding the lower left portion of their iPhone 4s. While not all users have been able to reproduce the problem, it does seem to be fairly widespread, and can be easily visualized as users watch their bars indicating signal strength drop all the way down over a period of a few seconds while the lower left portion of the device is cupped in the hand.

In his iPhone 4 review for The Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg did note the device's tendency to show a lower number of signal strength bars than the iPhone 3GS, but that calls did continue to go through and Apple reported that the issue is simply a software issue with the display of the bars rather than an actual signal strength issue.

The cupping issue, however, may be more significant than just a software presentation issue, as several users have reported dropping calls as they place their hand over the lower left portion of the phone.

One user has posted a YouTube video demonstrating the issue and the use of a slide-on iPhone 3GS case to eliminate it.



Article Link: iPhone 4 Signal Strength Indicator Issue Alleviated by Use of Bumper or Case?
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Since I may be naive....
Could someone explain to me how this could (per Apple and AT&T's claim) that this could be a software issue.
Is that even possible.

I'm just asking because this seems like it would be something solely hardware and design related.
 
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